Beneficial Effects of Spatial Remapping for Reading With Simulated Central Field Loss

PURPOSE: People with central field loss (CFL) lose information in the scotomatous region. Remapping is a method to modify images to present the missing information outside the scotoma. This study tested the hypothesis that remapping improves reading performance for subjects with simulated CFL. METHODS: Circular central scotomas, with diameters ranging from 4° to 16°, were simulated in normally sighted subjects using an eye tracker on either a head-mounted display (HMD) (experiments 1, 2) or a traditional monitor (experiment 3). In the three experiments, reading speed was measured for groups of 7, 11, and 13 subjects with and without remapping of text. RESULTS: Remapping increased reading speed in all three experiments. On the traditional monitor, it increased reading speed by 34% (8°), 38% (12°), and 35% (16°). In the two HMD experiments, remapping increased reading speed only for the largest scotoma size, possibly due to latency of updating of the simulated scotoma. CONCLUSIONS: Remapping significantly increased reading speed in simulated CFL subjects. Additional testing should examine the efficacy of remapping for reading and other visual tasks for patients with advanced CFL.